smothering popular expressions of sympathy and public offers of assistance under a barrage of official propaganda, and channelling charitable

In the traditional account, China is a normal sovereign nation, one that happens to be ruled by a communist party, though it has reformed to enable significant capital markets to grow rich. It denies the public a say on the issues, yet there are clear responsibilities for the leadership (such as economic growth) which drive the political landscape. Since the founding of the Communist Party in China just over a century ago there is much the country has achieved but considerable dispute over who did all the heavy lifting, who should get the credit, and who in fact gets the spoils. On the Leninist model of state organisation, ideology and organisation (including economic organisation) are supposed to match up.measures the world’s largest economy. The party presides over diversified and liberalised communities and a highly marketised economy.6 John Fitzgerald is an historian of China and the Chinese diaspora. He headed the Asia-Pacific Centre for Social Investment and Philanthropy at Swinburne University after serving five years as China Representative of The Ford Foundation in Beijing (2008-13). From 2015 to 2017 he served as President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. His recent books include Cadre Country: How China became the Chinese Communist Party (2022), Taking the Low Road: China’s Influence in Australia’s States and Territories (edited, 2022), and Chinese Diaspora Charity and the Cantonese Pacific, 1850–1949 (edited with Hon-ming Yip, 2020). of the party’s latest in-house language. This is a consistent moneyearner for cadre trainers as official party phrases are designed with

Cadre Country is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the workings of the Chinese Communist Party and the limits of its achievements. As Fitzgerald writes, Cadre Country is ‘about the party and government officials who run the country, known as cadres, and about the system of cadre rule that grants them status and privileges not enjoyed by ordinary people’. CCP members are essentially ‘employees holding established positions in the party and state system, on full benefits.’

Though Fitzgerald does not raise this question, I came away from the book wondering if it is even meaningful to call China a sovereign nation. Its 1.4 billion people are not the foundation of sovereignty in the eyes of the Party. Rather, it is the fact they were conquered and remain subservient across an extended history which has granted the legitimacy of rule for the Party-State to remain in control. When 'China' goes into the world, especially under Xi Jinping, the explicit core interests sought are the interests, preservation and welfare of the Party-State. Not the People-State. Revolution’s role in cadre recruitment and replacement is easily overlooked. In fact, between 60 and 80 per cent of all cadres were removed what this means for people in China and those of us outside. The ongoing assault on the legal profession is not simply an arbitrary exercise Take the famous urban-influx of migrants, where farmers left their fields and moved into Chinese big cities, fueling economic growth. Fitzgerald cites studies suggesting there are at least 130 million such migrant laborers (up to 10% of the population), who while working in the cities are still legally treated as part of their former rural environments. As such, they cannot gain access to urban healthcare, education or welfare services. Absent secure housing or support, as many as 60 million children are left behind with grandparents in rural environments, or taught in near-illicit migrant schools on the outskirts of the major cities. These workers have contributed as much as 1/3rd of the total growth of China over the last few decades, yet they remain virtual foreign workers in their own country. The attempt itself is not out of character for a communist partystate. Historically, on seizing power, communist parties demolish

John Fitzgerald is an Emeritus Professor at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. He served for five years as China Representative of The Ford Foundation in Beijing (2008-2013) before heading the Asia-Pacific philanthropy studies program at Swinburne University. His books include Big White Lie: Chinese Australians in White Australia, awarded the Ernest Scott Prize of the Australian Historical Association, and Awakening China: Politics, Culture and Class in the Nationalist Revolution, awarded the Joseph Levenson Prize of the US Association for Asian Studies. His latest book is Cadre Country: How China became the Chinese Communist Party (2022).It takes decades of patient observation, experience and study of China to produce a book like this. Cadre Country is a must read for specialists and the general public.' - Anita Chan, Australian National University In addition, Fitzgerald scrutinises the Party’s key claim that it achieves goals because of its long-term planning, for example in infrastructure, compared to democratic short-termism. But, as the book observes, long-term planning removes the autonomy of individuals, families, and private firms. Fitzgerald cites the violations of individual autonomy during the One Child Policy (1980-2016) to illustrate his claim. He is surely right. Yet what is interesting is that Western governments increasingly perceive that long-term planning has enabled China to develop economically. For example, leaders in the United States and European Union have recently announced plans related to technology development to compete with China. John Fitzgerald is a China historian. He served as China Representative of The Ford Foundation in Beijing for five years (2008–2013) The book pays particular attention to the history, language, and culture of the Communist Party but maintains a relentless focus on what has become of China since the Global Financial Crisis and in particular since Xi Jinping came to power. The party is in the act of swallowing a liberalised society, a marketized economy, and a diverse country. This matters for everyone, because the way China’s government behaves at home frames its conduct abroad. Fitzgerald aims to bring an up-to-date account into the public sphere regarding the on-the-ground realities of China and the CCP’s rule, in comparison to work that often stays within insular academic and elite debates. This work forms part of Fitzgerald’s ongoing criticism of the pragmatic approach that Australian elites have taken in promoting deep engagement with China to develop economic opportunities while ignoring the more authoritarian, nationalistic, and ideological path of Xi’s China.